In the past leg braces conventionally are provided with lower distal ends with inturned confronting portions which are received within a reinforced portion of a shoe and spring-urged to remain within slots. The problem has been that the distal ends sometimes slip out of the slots with an attendant loss of support.
In the past, various devices have been utilized to hold the internal or confronting portions of the leg braces in the reinforced slot zones of the heels of shoes. These means have included screws which extend vertically through the sole and engage the T-shaped members; however, when such screws are used, the shoe is permanently fastened to the leg brace, which is undesirable because a person wearing a leg brace often times desires to remove his shoe. Other solutions have been to utilize ties about the ankle zone which hold the lower distal ends of the brace together. This invention is of an improved fastener means for holding the lower ends of a leg brace together.
This invention has as an object the provision of a fastener means which includes a body arranged on the lower distal end of the leg brace of a wearer's leg and which engages, either by hooked-up relationship therewith, or by other fastener means, and which include finger means which are fastened together beneath the shoe in the crotch defined by the sole and the heel.
It is a general object of this invention to provide an improved fastener means for securing the lower distal ends of leg braces to shoes which can be easily and quickly released yet when in engagement provides a secure connection with the shoe.
Generally speaking the invention comprises an orthopedic brace lock means to connect to a shoe which is in two sections, each of which are of strip form spring steel, in the preferred embodiment, of about 81/2 inches in length which are provided with a rearward hooked portion formed by bending the rearward portion upon itself for hooked-up engagement with the lower distal ends of a leg brace with a finger extending about the heel of the shoe and nestled in the crotch between the front face of the heel and the lower face of the sole, with the fastening of the fingers being by a screw which is threaded and in mating engagement with a pair of aligned holes in the fingers, so that it may be easily removed and with the device, thus, being adapted for connection to any conventional leg brace and shoe.